Can The UK Escape Five Years Of Depression?

05/08/2011 by
Irvin

The National Institute of Social and Economic Research (NIESR) uses the term ‘depression’ to mean any period in which output remains below its previous peak. [1] The UK depression has already lasted three years and is likely to last five years or more; ie, longer than that of 1930s.[2]  Not only must Osborne’s Plan A [...]

Filed Under: Business, Capitalism, Columns, Economic Policy, Globalisation Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Introducing a European Carbon Tax: The Missing Piece in Europe’s Climate Strategy?

25/06/2010 by

Once in a while, usually at the beginning of his turn in office, the EU Commissioner for Taxes approaches member state governments with a specific proposal: a European carbon tax. While in the past, this attempt seemed both brave and hopeless at the same time, the attempt could actually win some support this year. The [...]

Filed Under: Columns, Environmental Policy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Reforming the EU Budget to Promote Sustainable Growth

17/06/2010 by
Iain Begg

Reforming the EU budget offers one way to promote sustainable development in Europe. Even given the current limited size of this budget, substantial resources could be channelled into a broad carbon mitigation and adaptation programme with a European value added, either by fully exploiting the ‘own resources’ ceiling, or by shifting resources from other policy [...]

Filed Under: Columns, Environmental Policy, European Union Tagged With: , , , , ,

Which planet is America on (and which Europe)?

24/03/2010 by

The American political commentator Robert Kagan once claimed that ‘Americans are from Mars, Europeans from Venus’. If so, I have just spent a week in the capital of Mars. And, back on Venus, I have watched from afar the debate, if that is the right word, on the reform of the Martian healthcare system. I [...]

Filed Under: Columns, Social Policy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,